Le livre d'image

Complex, very complex, different, very different, many images, few sounds, a lot to say in few words, film clippings, reports, animations, war, pain, suffering, sometimes disconnected, but always very intense... First work by Jean-Luc Godard that I watch, and I started with the most subjective, profound and strange... "The world is not interested in Arabs and Muslims, while Islam has political attention." Is about. That, about generalization, about Islamophobia, generalization, xenophobia, wanting to silence a nation...

You can very well like Godard, and "Goodbye to Language" and still find this absolutely pretentious and meaningless. To me, in this "work" ( or "book" if you want to call it, it's definitely not a "movie") the substance does not justify the framework. I looked at my watch trying to figure out how much longer I'd have to sit through, and realized we're 9 minutes into the movie! NINE!!! I left the theatre after 40 minutes realizing I can find better things to do in the next 45 minutes.

My immediate reaction to this film was: a modern, edgy and less focused film comprable to Tarkovsky's "The Mirror."

I genuinely don't know what to rate this film. I'm pretty indifferent towards it. Throughout watching, I noticed my mind regularly wandering, and, unlike how I normally respond to that observation, I let it continue to happen. I feel like Godard would appreciate that because, at the end of the day, isn't that what film is? Visual and sonic stimulus that leads to inward thought? With allowing myself to drift came a meditative quality. The difference with this film is that inward thought inspired by the screen was incredibly immediate but far less direct. I say it's indirect because there doesn't seem to be any complete or clear idea throughout the film that I could have used to inwardly springboard off of.

Like the film, this review doesn't seem grounded in much concrete thought, and I think that's an appropriate response to have. That sounds like a negative statement but it truly isn't. The whole thing felt like an unabashed visual stream of consciousness into Godard's various woes with the world in which meaning can be more drawn from the form than the substance. It was a unique experience to say the least.

Complex, very complex, different, very different, many images, few sounds, a lot to say in few words, film clippings, reports, animations, war, pain, suffering, sometimes disconnected, but always very intense... First work by Jean-Luc Godard that I watch, and I started with the most subjective, profound and strange... "The world is not interested in Arabs and Muslims, while Islam has political attention." Is about. That, about generalization, about Islamophobia, generalization, xenophobia, wanting to silence a nation... The director suggested that not all scenes were translated, so that the image and sound would speak for themselves... Amazing...

This is a video essay that feels like a window into the precious collection of a videophile. Living legend, french director Jean-Luc Godard stamps here his mastery with his recurring topics and concerns. Very violent images dance with an adventurous collage of fine visual material, a result of a long time journey. I think the outcome is unbeatable and enjoyable if you are looking for new structures, like a jazz freestyle solo but with images and poetry instead of notes. It's a story about tragedy, revolution, the Arabic world, east vs west types of understandings and life itself.

If you feel like watching it do it, but be prepare to face an unorthodox editing, sound level surprises, non causal argument and beautiful images of a tragic reality, the reality of humans and its imaginary.